“Could it be….. Am I seeing a ghost?”
Ruans rubbed his eyes. Then he looked again at the person visible beyond the prison bars.
No matter how he looked, the dead Adrian was standing there. His whole body broke out in goosebumps.
“This can’t be. Why am I seeing a dead person? Did he come to mock me even in death?”
Unable to contain his anger, he shouted and reached his hand through the bars.
“Have you appeared because my situation is so laughable? Elder brother Adrian? What grievance made you appear? Disappear from my sight right now! You ghost!”
Ruans gritted his teeth and pounded his fist against the iron bars.
After pounding for a while, he lost strength and bowed his head, breathing heavily.
“I didn’t appear out of grievance. Ruans. Look at me closely.”
“What?”
Ruans raised his head and met Adrian’s gaze with a fierce expression.
“Lies.”
How could this be when he had confirmed his death.
“Lady Lorencia has a special power. The power to see the future….. I finally understand why you were so obsessed with her.”
Ruans’ face contorted greatly. Adrian continued speaking with a relaxed smile.
“Ruans, I’ll say it once more, but I’m not a ghost standing in front of you right now.”
“This is impossible. It can’t be.”
Adrian looked at Ruans who was turning away despite being told the truth.
“I know you’ve been trying to kill me all this time. You even tried to kill my father and mother as soon as I died.”
When Lorencia told him about the future, he was unsure. But how could it be!
Wasn’t it unfilial for Ruans to kill Adolf! But after hearing Yuria and Karlien’s story, he realized her words were true.
“You’re alive? You’re saying you’re not a ghost standing in front of me right now? Don’t make me laugh. I clearly confirmed that your heart had stopped! Your heart had stopped!”
How could he be saying he’s alive! It doesn’t make sense.
He had confirmed Adrian whose heart had stopped after being hit by an arrow and bleeding profusely.
“You’re fake. You’re an impostor imitating elder brother Adrian!”
“Ruans von Isuter!”
Ruans and Adrian’s voices clashed.
“I was never dead from the beginning.”
Ruans slumped to the ground, staring at the floor.
“And you expect me to believe that?”
“Whether you believe it or not doesn’t matter, but I came to tell you that the person who saved me was Lady Lorencia.”
“Lorencia? That makes even less sense. Lorencia loves me….. She betrayed me? Don’t say such ridiculous things!”
Ruans couldn’t understand. Why on earth would Lorencia betray him.
“Lady Lorencia does not love you.”
“No. Lorencia loves me.”
“I heard that Lady Lorencia clearly said she doesn’t love you.”
“She said she didn’t love me then, but the reason she had to say that was because of that damn trash Teishar. Lorencia loves me so deeply…..”
Adrian looked at the eyes stained with fear.
Even in fear, he firmly believed only his words were the truth.
“You’re free to be deluded, but the important thing is that at least you, Ruans, are not in Lady Lorencia’s future.”
“Lies. I don’t believe it. How can I trust an elder brother who pretended to be dead and deceived me.”
“I pretended to be dead to buy time to corner you and Duke Greikan.”
“How could you deceive me? And why are you lying to me about Lorencia? I resent you, elder brother Adrian!”
“Is it such a great wrong to deceive someone who was trying to kill me?”
Adrian stared at Ruans who was resenting him and tapped the iron bars a few times with his fingertips.
“If you feel sorry for me, please at least call Mother here.”
“I have done nothing to feel sorry for or be resented by you, Ruans.”
“Lies!”
He screamed at the top of his lungs as his green eyes became bloodshot.
Watching that reaction closely, Adrian narrowed his eyes slightly and raised the corners of his mouth. Unlike his smile, the murderous intent in his eyes seemed to be holding back a lot.
[This is the timeline separator]Pelena was suddenly confined to her palace.
Hearing it was the emperor’s order, she became furious to the top of her head. She felt betrayed by Ruans. But the person who confined her was not Ruans.
“Who came back alive?”
“Emperor Adolf and Empress Ines have returned alive, Your Grace.”
“I can’t believe it.”
At the news of Adolf’s return, she felt something had gone wrong.
“What happened? How are they alive when they were said to be dead?”
“It seems they fell into a trap, Your Grace.”
“A trap?”
“Duke Actuar entered the conference room with them and confined Emperor Ruans and Duke Greikan to solitary cells.”
Pelena chuckled. She had worked hard for a long time to make all living beings in this world forget about Goddess Ella.
Now that Ruans had become emperor, she just needed to start a war, unify the entire empire, and gradually imprint Goddess Saraf as the main deity of this world among the people.
But where did it go wrong?
“No. There was not a single thing that went wrong from the beginning.”
Everything had proceeded according to plan until now. It never deviated from the plan. The plan was always perfect.
There was never anything wrong. No, everything was perfect except for just one thing.
It was not being able to devour Ella’s seventh child with purple eyes.
Unlike the other six children of Ella, it had the power to see the future, so it was difficult to catch. So she took Musilla hostage.
“Right. I had forgotten.”
“Pardon? What had you forgotten, Your Grace?”
“Nothing. Just talking to myself. You may go.”
Pelena gestured for all the maids to leave.
“That one appeared proudly before me with the black snake of the earth.”
Long ago, back then too, she thought everything had gone as she wanted.
She liked the process of this insignificant world changing beautifully.
And she felt like her insides were burning at the sight of all living beings praising Ella.
The jealous emotions turned pitch black. When she came to her senses, she had just killed Ella’s child.
Seeing Ella suffering after her child died, the jealous black emotions were beautifully colored.
With those final words, Ella planted the sapling of the Tree of Life in this world and disappeared.
To take Ella’s place, she had to either kill the Tree of Life sapling or make it permeate into all living beings of this world that the main deity was Saraf, not Ella.
Before that, she had to make the powers of Ella’s remaining children her own. So she captured Musilla and called the child with purple eyes.
She was about to devour it in one bite, but the purple-eyed child of Ella said it would tell her the location of the Tree of Life sapling if she spared its life.
The gods born in the divine garden are born with their own Tree of Life.
It is the choice of the born god whether to raise that Tree of Life in the divine garden or kill it. But Ella transplanted her Tree of Life sapling to this world.
She really did a foolish thing.
The main deity who transplants the Tree of Life sapling to another place becomes one with the Tree of Life sapling.
That is the responsibility of the one who transplants the Tree of Life from the divine garden.
So if the Tree of Life sapling withers or dies, Ella will also suffer the same fate.
But on the contrary, if the Tree of Life sapling takes root in this world and grows into a complete great tree, this world will become an immortal world and Ella will be able to exercise absolute power as the main deity of this world.
If that happens, she cannot have this world.
And the place she took it to was the forest between the Isuter Empire and the Polroid Empire.
She was angry. So she tried to devour it, but the black snake of the earth appeared and stopped her.
And after the ensuing fight, she won.
But the purple-eyed child and the black snake of the earth disappeared before her eyes.
In the meantime, Musilla also escaped. She lost everything before her eyes. Everything became a mess because of the purple-eyed child of Ella.
All of this was because of Ella’s child with purple eyes.
Come to think of it.
“Lorencia is also Ella’s purple-eyed child.”
Pelena held her forehead. Contrary to Lorencia’s words that Adolf, Ines, and Charlotte would all die, they are all alive.
“Where did you start deceiving from, Lorencia?”
Was it from the beginning? Or from the middle? If it was a lie from the beginning.
Adolf and Ines have also returned alive.
“Right. Perhaps they are alive.”
Adrian von Isuter.
Pelena smiled for just a moment. Then her face began to harden coldly.
Everything she had believed was going according to plan felt like watching a sandcastle carefully built on sand being swept away by a small wave.
Anyway, a disappeared sandcastle can be built again countless times. She could only laugh hollowly.
“Why do I have to suffer such humiliation mixed among the humans Ella created?”
Standing by the window, Pelena smiled faintly. She wanted to return to being the white snake and ruin this world, but she couldn’t.
Because this world belongs to Ella. The ruin and prosperity of this world is also the role of the main deity, not her role.
She wanted to live being gloriously worshipped like Ella.
So she covered Ella’s eyes.
Before she opened her eyes, she either tried to find the Tree of Life sapling or created temples to Ella to inflict pain on people and make them turn away from Ella.
Unable to know the location of the Tree of Life sapling, she spread her poison in this world.
Her poison is fatal to the Tree of Life sapling.
Somehow, she must use poison to rot it and prevent it from growing before the Tree of Life fully grows and takes complete root in this world.
However, all the plans she had set up have now been ruined.
The temple of Goddess Ella was closed due to the Polroid Empire’s founding day celebration, and the human she had assigned the role of Great Saint also died.
In this situation, even the humans she thought were dead have returned alive.
Ruans and Daniel were confined to solitary cells. It was as good as having all her limbs cut off.
She asked Adolf for a visit with Ruans and Daniel, but was refused.
Above all, she was also prevented from going outside the palace. It was as good as being confined to a solitary cell.
And Liona, who became Ruans’ concubine, also left the imperial palace and returned to the marquis’ residence.
The false rumors that the Great Saint Saraf is a witch, heard from outside the imperial palace, only tormented Pelena.
All her plans have completely fallen apart.
The Male lead Always Seduces Her with His Beauty (Matriarchy)
Xin Jiao Zhou is the leader of the world’s premier sect. She has just experienced betrayal from all sides, was poisoned in an assassination attempt, and faced death squad attacks while the poison was taking effect. After finally clearing out the scum from her sect, she was drugged again while trying to detoxify.
After waking up from a night of unconsciousness, she gained a “beautiful and kind-hearted” husband.
Xin Jiao Zhou: “???”
He fell ill.
She came to see him, bringing breakfast.
As she put down the breakfast and was about to leave, his hand slipped while holding the spoon. “Clank!”
She turned around upon hearing the noise.
He looked up at her, his eyebrows drooping: “My hand… has no strength.”
“Shall I… feed you?” she asked tentatively.
He opened his mouth cheerfully: “Ah—”
Thinking she was drowning, he jumped in without hesitation to save her, but nearly drowned himself. In the end, it was she who swam over to rescue him, giving him air underwater.
After emerging from the water, his ear tips turned red. He lightly brushed his cheek, tucking his sideburns behind his ear, revealing delicate, pink-tinged ear tips. He lowered his gaze, too embarrassed to look at her.
Xin Jiao Zhou: He’s truly beautiful, kind-hearted, and adorable.
A certain someone when disciplining subordinates behind the scenes: “If they don’t obey, just kill them.”
What’s that? She might already have someone she cares about in her heart? A certain someone: Find out who it is, kill them, and then there won’t be anyone.
What? She met a man by the riverside? What? That man even hurt her? A certain someone: Whichever hand hurt her, chop off his entire arm.
Love at first sight without realizing it, gradually falling in love, slowly getting closer…
Family and national grudges, schemes and desires, good and evil, crime and punishment, she and he face the future together, seeking justice with passion!
A naturally dark female lead who could accidentally destroy the world but is actually an honest person VS a weak, pitiful, and helpless but skilled fighter, beautiful white-cut black male lead
My heart is not of stone, how steadfast is your love? — Tao Yuanming “Imitating the Ancients (No. 3)”
— Reading Guide —
Cold female lead & dramatic black lotus with hidden yandere traits male lead
